January 11, 2008

A BETTER CHOICE ON TAXES

Trump pays less % in taxes than a janitor in his buildings

After twelve years of Republican rule in Albany — and one year of rule by a moderate Democrat — New York's state tax system has become dramatically and unfairly slanted to favor the very rich. While New York has a media reputation as a high-tax state, the fact is that Donald Trump pays a smaller percentage of his income in state and local taxes than do the people who build his buildings and clean them up.

The "Better Choice Budget Campaign" has worked for the past six years to unite antipoverty, union, healthcare, environmental, children's and other advocacy groups in favor of fair taxation and revenue proposals that will provide adequate funding for needed state government programs.

You and your organization can sign on to this year's campaign by filling out an on-line form at www.abetterchoiceforny.org or by downloading the sign-on statement here and faxing it back to the campaign.

The Better Choice for "One New York"

To grow New York's economy we must invest in New York's working families. A healthy state economy requires well-educated New Yorkers, safe communities, affordable health care, affordable housing and a sound transportation infrastructure.

In recent decades, state budget policies have placed increasing pressure on local property taxes and local sales taxes. And the state government then came to the rescue with a program that provides rebate checks to all homeowners, regardless of need, and not enough to those who are truly overburdened by the increases in local taxes.

The Governor and the Legislature must work together to ensure that the 2008-09 state budget is fair to New York's families by balancing the state budget in an equitable manner that makes the state tax system fairer and begins to actually reduce the pressure on the local property and sales tax bases rather than shifting more of the tax burden onto the backs of low and middle income New Yorkers.

We can promote tax fairness, strengthen local economies and help struggling families by:

Creating a Tax System that is FAIR to all New Yorkers: The wealthiest New Yorkers pay a much smaller percentage of their incomes in state and local taxes than low and middle income working families. Seniors on fixed incomes, working families and young couples are among the New Yorkers who suffer from the inequities in the current state-local tax structure. New York's policymakers must take the pressure off the property tax by restoring some of the income tax system's lost progressivity and closing corporate tax loopholes that allow some of the nation's largest corporations to avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

Strengthening Local Communities: Rather than putting increased pressure on the local property and sales tax bases and then providing "relief" to local taxpayers in the form of state rebate checks, New York State policymakers must work together to reduce the pressure on local property and sales tax bases by restoring the state's commitment to "revenue sharing" with its local governments and having the state government take over a greater share of local education and healthcare costs. And the state's STAR programs must be targeted to provide adequate relief to those families that are most in need.

It's time for New York State to end the special treatment of the favored few by:

• Closing loopholes that allow large, profitable corporations to avoid paying their fair share of state taxes.
• Stopping sweetheart deals with high-priced consultants who are being overpaid to do jobs that state workers can do better and cheaper.
• Lowering drug prices for state and local governments by using New York's purchasing power to get a fair deal from the drug companies.
• Reforming economic development programs by improving the effectiveness and accountability of Industrial Development Agencies (IDAs), the Brownfield Clean Up Program (BCP) and the Empire Zones program.
• Enacting the Bigger, Better Bottle Bill and making the beverage bottling industry return unclaimed bottle deposits.
• Making New York's tax system fairer and more equitable by increasing the top marginal tax rates on the highest income households.

We support the Better Choice Budget Campaign and agree to promote its message through our organization's work on the New York State budget:

Organization/Address: ________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

Contact Person: _______________________________

Telephone: __________________ Fax: __________________________

e-mail: _________________________

Please return to New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness, 212 Great Oaks Blvd., Albany, New York 12203. Fax to: 518-869-8649 or fill out the form on the web at www.abetterchoiceforny.org

The Housing Works AIDS Issues Update is reported, written and edited by Diana Scholl, David Thorpe, Phil Fox Rose, Christine Campbell, terri smith-caronia and Housing Works staff. Send your feedback, leads and story ideas to d.scholl@housingworks.org.

You can reach us by phone at 212-967-1500 x168, by fax at 212-868-4222, and by email at d.scholl@housingworks.org. Housing Works provides housing, advocacy and services to homeless people living with AIDS and HIV. Housing Works is the nation's largest community-based AIDS organization and the nation's largest minority-controlled AIDS organization.

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